FLA Answers Apple's Call to Inspect Foxconn Factories

Last month, Apple asked the FLA to investigate Foxconn's China factories. Its resulting report found factory executives need to do more to protect workers' rights and improve working conditions.

While not as
shocking as some critics predicted, a new report about working conditions at
Foxconnthe Chinese factory now famous for churning out Apple products, as well
as other electronicspaints a grim picture of exhausting working conditions and
a disregard for workers rights.
The degree to
which the report will improve workers' experiences is unclear, but it succeeds
in shedding light on the often-overlooked conditions that produce affordable
electronics for consumers and businesses in the United States and Western
Europe. While Apple is not the only company that uses Foxconn, its iconic
status has made it a focal point of recent protests.

The FLA
surveyed nearly 35,000 randomly selected Foxconn workers and logged nearly
3,000 staff hours at factories in Chengdu, Longhua and Guanlan, and what it
found were "serious and pressing non-compliances with FLAs Workplace Code
of Conduct, as well as Chinese labor law."
The findings
were broken down into four key areas. In the first, regarding hours, Foxconn
employees were found to be working so many hours, so many days in a row, that
in order for Foxconn to achieve full legal compliance regarding workers' hours,
while also maintaining current levels of output, Foxconn will need to hire
"tens of thousands of extra workers" over the next year.
Regarding
health and safety, there were particular concerns regarding aluminum dustthe
cause of a fatal explosion at Foxconn's Chengdu facility in 2011and workers,
the FLA found, "felt generally insecure regarding their health and
safety."

Michelle Maisto has been covering the enterprise mobility space for a decade, beginning with Knowledge Management, Field Force Automation and eCRM, and most recently as the editor-in-chief of Mobile Enterprise magazine. She earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and in her spare time obsesses about food. Her first book, The Gastronomy of Marriage, if forthcoming from Random House in September 2009.